Matt Reeves Says He’s Going Hitchcock for ‘The Batman’

Matt Reeves is the type of director who makes action movies that are primarily character studies: the character-driven empathy of the Planet of the Apes movies were a pleasant surprise and departure from what could have been just another big-budget CGI soup. Reeves is a director who makes you care about the people in his movies, which is why he might be the best choice to direct Ben Affleck’s The Batman after Affleck himself stepped down. Reeves’ work on War for the Planet of the Apes is done, and now that he can turn his attention to his DC movie, he already knows which director he’ll turn to for guidance.

Reeves recently spoke to CNET about starting work on The Batman, and he said that he’s planning on using the films of Alfred Hitchcock for inspiration.

For me, point of view is really important. I want to make sure you are experiencing something from the perspective of the main character in the story. I’m a huge Hitchcock fan — I like the idea of being immersed in that perspective. Movies for me are about empathy. The idea is to make you, the audience, feel what the character feels.

That’s certainly not a bad choice, as Hitchcock movies and the original Batman comics aren’t too far away from each other tonally. Hitchcock was a master of suspense, but also a master of character and story. After all, you can’t have a suspenseful movie if the audience doesn’t care what happens to the protagonist. Maybe DC’s movies are getting back on the right track.